Ratchet and Clank: The Final Frontier
by That Geek
Summary: Join Ratchet, Clank, and Captain Qwark as they embark on their greatest adventure yet: finding the lombaxes. Can they survive as they are attacked by the fierce Yomans and those they thought they could trust betray them? Find out in their newest adventure
1. Before Departure

_Author's Note: Smarty and the Geek proudly present their debut Fanfiction:_

**Ratchet and Clank Future:**

**The Final Frontier**

_Disclaimer: I do not own Ratchet and Clank, Insomniac does._

**Chapter 1:**

**Before Departure**

_**The night before Up Your Arsenal**_

Ratchet was sitting in his friend Angela's apartment, watching HV with her and Clank. The latter one was sitting, glaring at the two lombaxes who were dangerously close to one another; Ratchet had his arm around Angela's waist. He had watched as those two lombaxes got closer and closer over the time between now and their last adventure. He remembered the first time they sat there together like that, Angela was on one side of the sofa and Ratchet was on the other. Later that week, Angela was sitting halfway across the cushion farther from the edge, and then Ratchet did the same the next week. Finally, over the course of around 3 months, those two ended up like this and it was only then that they admitted that they were dating. He remembered the one time he had come in after a shooting of Secret Agent Clank to find those two kissing, completely unaware that he had entered, the number of times he had had to dump ice water on them was getting out of counting for even his systems. After what he believed to be the 407th time they agreed to never kiss anywhere where Clank might see them or at least leave it to a small peck. So they were sitting there with the lombaxes snuggling against each other and the robot glaring over at them. The program then changed to a Captain Qwark movie and Angela turned the HV off.

"No one cares about Qwark these days anyway, or at least not in this apartment," she yawned.

"You got that right," he said, stretching.

"I must admit I dislike Qwark equally." Angela yawned and looked at the clock.

"Man it's late, I'm going to bed."

"Me too," he yawned. Angela got up to go to her room and Ratchet followed her.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I think you know just as well as I do."

"Oh no," Clank groaned. Angela simply giggled at Ratchet's remark and continued going to her room and Ratchet followed her again but she didn't stop him. "I fear this will end badly." And indeed, Clank soon heard noises that no one wants to hear coming out of their friend's bedroom and Clank shut off his audio receptors. "Ah, blissful silence." Clank then went into sleep mode so that he didn't have to be aware of what his friends were doing.

The next morning, Clank came out of sleep mode when his internal clock struck 8:00AM. He looked around to see Angela's apartment gone, they had returned to his own apartment in Megapolis. He saw Ratchet watching a police show, _Walker: Aridia Ranger_. Clank personally despised the show; it was _Secret Agent Clank_'s biggest rival. Clank swiped the remote and pointed it at the screen, turning it to _Secret Agent Clank_. Ratchet groaned, he hated the show because of his character, Clank's bumbling chauffer. He continued playing around with the game pieces for _Soldiers and Snagglebeasts_, a popular RPG in the Solana galaxy.

"Play you." Ratchet smiled at his friend gratefully and set up the board.

Later, Ratchet and Clank were bustling to their ship after hearing that fateful news report of the attack on Veldin. Ratchet had just carelessly thrown the Gravimetric Warp Drive into his ship and blasted away to the Solana Galaxy. Back in Clank's apartment, a shadowed figure crept towards the living room. It snuck out from the corridor and entered the living room, sneaking towards the couch. Angela poked her nose above the back of the sofa and saw the bundle of blankets on the cushions; obviously Ratchet had been too tired to get into his bed. She held back a mischievous giggle and tackled the bundle of blankets. Instead of an irritable male Lombax growling at her, Angela was met with an empty couch and a collision with the table. She got up, rubbing her head, and walked out of the apartment in confusion. Angela looked to where Ratchet kept his starship parked and saw it missing. Ratchet must have left, but today? She tried to call his ship but all that she got was a message that said Ratchet was out of the reach of her connection. He had left the galaxy? She was confused; Ratchet had so much in this galaxy, a good job, a nice apartment, a girlfriend; why would he leave. Was there someone else? Someone in another galaxy that Ratchet also had a relationship with? Was he cheating on her, or being used to cheat on someone else?

She was so confused, Ratchet loved her, they had gone so far together; so far as to… of course, that was all he had wanted. She growled in anger and stormed back to her ship in the alley. Angela climbed in and started up the engines; she was leaving, for where, she didn't know but she was not going to stay here. Then it occurred to her, the place she had grown up, Apogee Space Station in the Polaris Galaxy. Max would be able to make it feel better, and Talwyn could make anyone cheer up. She couldn't help but feel a wave of joy as she entered the coordinates for Apogee Space Station; she was going home to her adopted family. The ship lifted off and exited the atmosphere, turning towards the Polaris Galaxy. Angela couldn't help but hope that she would meet Ratchet again soon, but little did she or anyone else know that it would be seven years before she would meet Ratchet again and how much both of them will have changed, especially her…


	2. The Family Need

**Chapter 2:**

**The Family Need**

_**Seven Years Later**_

Ratchet was working on his space ship in Metropolis, waiting for something to happen in his life after he had left Clank to find his father back at the Master Clock. He sighed, remembering the sound of Clank's metallic feet approaching, so well he could hear them as he thought. He then remembered Clank's voice saying his name; he could literally hear it in his head.

Clak: "Ratchet, Ratchet, Ratchet, Ratchet…" Ratchet cupped his chin in his hands, thinking about Clank depressed him now and he ignored the small finger poking him in the back. Clank sighed behind Ratchet, pulled out a megaphone and yelled into it.

"RATCHET!" Ratchet jumped and looked behind him to see Clank putting away the megaphone and smiling at him.

"Clank buddy, I can't believe you came back, what happened to looking for your father?"

"I promised myself Ratchet, that I wouldn't seek my father until you had a family of your own."

"That'll be easy, I ask Sasha to marry me, we have kids…"

"I don't want you to force yourself into a relationship with someone you don't love anymore. You need a family of your own kind, a Lombax family," he insisted

"What? I'm the last freaking one in the universe," he laughed.

"Not quite Ratchet, Angela." Ratchet's face fell as he remembered the fiery female Lombax from the Bogon Galaxy.

"Clank, Angela left the universe after we darted off for Veldin remember?" Ratchet sighed in a depressed way.

"Then we go find her," Clank said with almost childish optimism.

"Clank! We're not talking about a new galaxy; we're talking about an entire universe."

"If Angela and the other Lombaxes were able to do it, then you can," he said pointedly.

"We don't have Lombax technology."

"Neither did Angela, yet she managed."

"Well, how do we get there?"

"A ship, enough people owe you favors that you could easily get the parts and energy needed."

"Yeah, great, we go off on our own to explore an entire universe."

"We could get Qwark's help."

"I never thought I'd hear you ever say 'Qwark' and 'help' in the same sentence again unless there was an 'is no' between them."

"Ratchet, you need to do it, you are the last of a long-gone race in this universe. You must help the Lombaxes come back to this universe."

"I can't Clank, I just can't." Clank stood up to his full height (not that that's saying much) and spoke with a challenging voice.

"Can't? You are Ratchet, the great hero."

"Hero maybe but _great_ hero?"

"Who stopped Chairman Drek from destroying the Solana galaxy?" he asked.

"I did."

"And who stopped Qwark's protopets from destroying the Bogon Galaxy?"

"I did."

"And who stopped Dr. Nefarious from destroying every bio-organism in the galaxy?"

"I did."

"Who destroyed Dreadzone?"

"Me."

"Who stopped Emperor Otto from becoming the most intelligent being in the universe?"

"Me."

"Who saved the galaxy from Klunk?"

"That was you actually." Clank ignored this.

"And who saved the universe from many horrors beyond that?"

"I get it I get it. I'll try to do it."

"Do what?" Ratchet and Clank turned to see a dark brown furred creature in the entrance to the garage. It was none other than Ratchet's ex-girlfriend, though she thought they were still together, Sasha Phyronix.

"Oh, Sasha, hi," he said, sounding not too thrilled to see her.

"Clank's back!" she smiled at the small silver figure in front of Ratchet.

"A pleasure as always Mayor Phyronix." Clank bowed.

"Kiss ass," he mumbled. Sasha, who had not heard Ratchet, smiled even brighter and focused back on Ratchet.

"So what crazy adventure are you two planning, and without Qwark to boot."

"We plan to seek out the lombaxes," he said boldly.

"Aren't those guys in a different universe though?" she asked.

"Yeah, they are, but Clank just pointed out to me that I did all that other stuff so I should be able to do this."

"I wouldn't mind having the lombaxes back, especially if all the guys are as cute as you." Ratchet turned red and smiled sheepishly at Sasha. Ratchet stared at Clank and the latter gave an indication to tell the truth.

"Sasha, it's not just the idea of bringing back the lombaxes it's that…Sasha, you weren't the first girl I fell in love with and this Lombax girl I knew I hurt her and I need to make sure she's okay."

"You mean physically hurt or emotionally?"

"Emotionally, we darted off to save Veldin when it was attacked and we sort of never told her why… or spoke to her again for that matter."

"Oh, so you're going off to see her and make up?" she guessed.

"Yeah, and then bring her and the others back," Ratchet said in relief. Clank stared at Ratchet, telling him to tell the rest of the truth. Ratchet sighed in defeat.

"Sasha, Clank has promised me and himself that he won't seek his father until he helped me find a family of my own and…and I…" Sasha had a strange expression on her face.

"Ratchet…are you asking me to marry you?" she asked.

"What, no I'm not. I'm trying to explain that we need to find the Angela because…oh man…uh." Sasha's eyes began to water and Ratchet started panicking. "No, Sasha please don't cry!"

"Just go Ratchet," she sniffled. She left in tears which made Ratchet feel terrible as he had always had feelings for Sasha, no matter what he might have told himself or Clank.

"You had to do it you know," Clank said in a bracing way.

"I know and I kinda feel bad about it but it's also relieving. I mean, she was kind of clingy, and her dad would never get off my back."

"Then our goal is clear?" he asked.

"Yeah, find Angela and the lombaxes to bring them back."


	3. Mission Preparation

**Chapter 3:**

**Mission Preparation**

_Author's Note: Chapter 3 is up. I would like to dedicate this to Tina Tissue and RoboticMasterMind who both reviewed my story and to Blackmooninthenight who favorited my story._

Ratchet knew that before he set off on any crazed adventures, he needed some kind of preparation.

"Okay, Ratchet, I have a list of to dos that must be accomplished before we set off."

"Let me see that." He looked at the long list but only focused on the things in bold, the general ideas.

Find Qwark and persuade to join expedition

Learn the Lombax language

Find suitable armor and weapons

Find parts to create a ship able to cross dimensions

Build ship

"That's quite a to-do."

"Yes it is," Clank said proudly. "So we had better get started."

"I'll call Qwark." Fifteen minutes later, Ratchet came back with the news that Qwark would love to join in and Clank crossed it off the list.

"Next, learn the Lombax language," Clank read.

"I'll talk to Talwyn about that." A few weeks later, as it was a language that should be natural to him, he was fluent in the Lombax language and Clank crossed that off.

"Suitable Armor and weapons."

"Hey, Fizzwidget still owes us big time for the Protopet fiasco." They flew to the Bogon galaxy and talked to Mr. Fizzwidget, the CEO of Megacorp. He was happy to sponsor their trip with state-of-the-art weapons and armor. For one, he owed Ratchet a favor; second, he really needed Angela back. Mr. Fizzwidget took them to a back room and shuffled through a box to find something, after a few minutes he came out with a strange looking wrench in his hands.

"This is probably the greatest weapon that Megacorp has ever created: The Omniwrench V10X." He handed it to Ratchet who held it in his hand and swung it once, away from everyone to be safe. It was sharp edged and had a strange nozzle type thing in-between the two bladed edges. "You can use that to attach weapon mods so you can shoot stuff from your wrench." He reached in the box and grabbed a Lancer mod, attached it to the end and pointed at Ratchet to fire at a target. Ratchet shot it and it exploded from the blast. He grinned.

"Ratchet like." Fizzwidget handed several mods over to attach to the wrench; Concussion mod, Hookshot mod, Agents of Doom mod… too many mods to count and afterwards Ratchet had only one complaint.

"No RYNO mod? Come on, a RYNO would be just what I need!" he complained.

"Sorry, that's Gadgetron." Fizziwidget then gave Ratchet a full body armor suit. Ratchet tried it on and came out looking very similar to his Dreadzone appearances.

"Yes, it is everything you have ever used in one armor suit! These boots, for example, incorporate Grindboots, Hoverboots, and Gravityboots."

"Sweet." Back in the ship, Clank crossed off the armor and weapons on his list.

"Okay, now we need ship parts."

"That's gonna take a while." They spent several weeks collecting the parts they needed, Slim Cognito was a big help in getting those, and then another month assembling it into the ship that was worthy of inter-dimensional travel. It was a sleek ship with powerful engines so that it could attain the necessary speeds for interdimensional travel.

It was the day of liftoff and there was quite a crowd gathered around the launch site waiting for Ratchet to arrive. Fangirls, Wanna-bes, Media, and anyone else you could think of were gathering in large numbers from all corners of Metropolis. Then a taxi came by and out stepped Ratchet, Clank, and Qwark. Police had to use all their combined strength to keep the bio-organism Fangirls off of Ratchet and Qwark and the robotic ones off of Clank. They lined up next to the spaceship and Qwark stepped forward to make the public announcement as this was his reward for agreeing to help Ratchet and Clank.

"I make this voyage as an act of friendship for my good friend and fellow hero, Ratchet."

_"What a Ham!"_ he thought, grinning.

"We leave today on a voyage that no one in the Solana Galaxy has ever attempted; we will cross the treacherous barrier between dimensions and enter a new universe in search of Ratchet's long-lost people. But do not fear this as the end of your heroes, for once we have found the Lombaxes we shall return and restore their ancient race back to the Solana, Bogon, or whatever galaxy they wish to settle in." The crowd roared in approval of Qwark's words and the three of them took off in the ship and blasted off, faster than light, to the new dimension.

_Author's Note: I know it's short; I'll post Chapter 4 as well. Please review this story!_


	4. A New Dimension

**Chapter 4:**

**New Dimension**

The _StarBlaster_ exited Kerwan's atmosphere and then bolted away at twice the speed of light. Ratchet panicked as he realized exactly how fast twice the speed of light was but was unable to stop the ship without it imploding and they shot straight out of the galaxy. They traveled across the vast emptiness of space for hours and then they saw something very strange. An aurora of lights that marked the edge of the universe, they picked up the pace to four times the speed of light and blasted through the barrier. They were in a land of swirling mists and colors, flying around aimlessly until they were flung from that place in a swoosh of the swirling colors where they saw a planet in their line of sight that was warm and flowing with life. They slowed down to half the speed of light and cruised into the atmosphere.

They landed in a clearing in the jungle, the only place they could find and got out to explore this place. Ratchet took the lead with Clank attached to his back like a backpack and Qwark in the rear, jumping at small noises with his classic Electro-Gun in hand. They wandered around the jungle until they heard what sounded like a bunch of adolescent girls laughing at something. They went around the corner and hid behind some bushes to see three Lombax girls splashing each other with water from a small pool and seemingly having a great time. Ratchet felt a strange feeling as he saw the girls; these were lombaxes, more than he had ever seen. At the most he had seen only one other Lombax whether it was Angela or General Alister Azimuth. He noticed that they had no tails as Lombax girls don't and those strange pony tail like things on their heads. Then Ratchet heard some male voices whispering in front of them, one was young and complaining while the other was annoyed at him.

"Come on Brad, this is so lame!" the younger Lombax whined.

"Ty, stop being such a twerp," the elder growled.

"But I don't find anything amusing about a bunch of girls washing themselves."

"Look, your mom told me to look after you a while, so if I want to look at these girls you have to come with me!" he growled.

"But I don't wanna!" His voice had grown louder and the girls were suddenly alert to that someone was watching them.

"Bradley, is that you again?" one of the girls asked in an exasperated voice.

"Damn it."

"Didn't the Chief tell you to stop doing this?" the same girl said again.

"Look, Chris, you need to stop rejecting me all the time," he said.

"And you need to stop being such a pervert," she retorted. Her friends giggled and made sounds like "Oooh" or "Oh no she didn't".

"What's going on?" the younger boy asked, confused.

"Oh my god, you brought Ty along? I'll tell his Nana what you made him do."

"Yeah, and then his Nana will tell Ms. Angela," another one of the girls said. Ratchet and Clank looked at each other; had that young Lombax just mentioned Angela?

"You little idiot, now I'm in even more trouble because of you!" He kicked the younger Lombax boy.

"Leave him alone!" Chris shouted. Brad did stop kicking the boy but he smiled at the girl with his foot still touching him.

"I will if you do a little something for me." The girl looked at him in disgust and tried to pry his foot off the boy. None of them noticed a large mech approaching with a small creature inside. It chuckled and all five lombaxes in the main part of the clearing backed away from it. The small boy clung to the older boy's leg, trying to hide from the creature in the mech. It had locked on to the lombaxes with its guns and was about to fire when a wrench flew through the air, cutting off the end of the barrel. The lombaxes watched the wrench sail back to a heavily armored figure that had two Lombax ears sticking out of the helmet. It was Ratchet of course, with Clank on his back and Qwark by his side… ten feet behind him. Ratchet launched Lancer blasts from his wrench and obliterated the mech in a few shots. The young lombaxes cheered for their saviors and ran forward to thank them. Clank detached himself from Ratchet's back and stood before the young boy who pointed at Clank then walked forward and flicked the little red light on the top of his head which swang back and forth on the little antenna. Ratchet took off his helmet and the Lombax girls giggled when they saw that it was a young male Lombax who had saved them.

"Hey, I remember Ms. Angela talking about a Lombax who fought with a little robot on his back, but I don't remember hearing about advanced weaponry like that!" Brad said excitedly.

"Yeah well, this is a bit of an upgrade from when Angela last saw me," Ratchet answered in an impressive tone highly reminiscent of Qwark.

"Actually, this is the most advanced weaponry ever created to be handled by one person," Clank added.

"Wow, that's so cool!" Ty said.

"Yeah it is so can we see where the settlement is?" he asked.

"We'll take you," Chris offered, gesturing to her friends and then beckoning to Ty. "Come on, we'll drop you off at your mom's Ty."

Ty: "Okay." He got up from playing some sort of game with Clank to follow the girls. Along the way, Ratchet looked over at Chris in confusion.

"Are you his cousin or something?" he asked.

"No, but my mom is good friends with Ms. Angela," she answered.

"What does Angela have to do with the kid?"

"Ms. Angela's his mom!" she said as though it was obvious.

"Angela has a _son_?" Ratchet asked.

"Yeah, he was born about nine months after she arrived."

"Who's his dad?" he asked nervously.

"Only Mom knows," Ty answered. Clank, meanwhile, seemed to be thinking.

"Nine months after she arrived; nine months after she left, nine months after it happened." Clank stared at Ratchet and Ratchet gave him a "you cannot be serious" look.

_Author's Note: Oooh, could Ty be Ratchet's son? Find out in the next couple chapters. _


	5. Angela's Return

_Author's Note: I would like to thank Secret Agent Pointless, RoboticMasterMind, and Shadow's Puppet. I would also like to alleviate Shadow Puppet's fears of discontinuation by telling you all that this story is PRE-WRITTEN Booyah!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Ratchet and Clank, however I do own Tyler Cross, Nana, Yomans, and this version of the Lombax dimension._

**Chapter 5:**

**Angela's Return**

The younger lombaxes led Ratchet and Clank and Qwark to the settlement where the lombaxes live. They got to the first few houses where a robot that looked slightly like an elderly woman was standing over a nice garden in front of the house to the forefront of the settlement. Ty ran towards the robot yelling: "Nana!" She looked up and opened her arms to the boy.

"Tyler chile, where in heaven have you been?" she asked in a worried voice.

"I was with Brad since mom said he could look after me for a while but we just ended up looking at those girls over there," he pointed to Chris and her friends. "Then they heard us and then this _huge_ mech came up behind us and nearly blasted us when the guy in the heavy armor saved us!" he said, pointing to Ratchet.

"You guys was in trouble then? Oh, Tyler chile' you got no idea how much trouble you in now."

"Oh, Nana!" he whined.

"Don't you start whinin', it won't work this time."

"B-b-but, I didn't d-d-do anything wrong!" he wailed.

"Tyler, you get in your room and I'll tell your mama Ms. Angela what you been doin'!" She watched the young boy shuffle into his room and shut the door then turned to Ratchet, Clank and Qwark.

"Thank you sirs, we never thought we'd see another Yoman in these parts again. No child is safe in the jungle with those things rampaging around in their mechs."

"Yeah, I can see that. Look, I really need to talk to Angela, do you know where I can find her?" he asked.

"You think I don't got any idea where my mistress is? She's off doing her job, poor chile'. Seems her only will to live is that little boy, but what does she do to earn the money, goes and does stuff no girl like her's got any right to," the robot woman sniffed.

"Like what?" he asked nervously.

"She works for the chief, keeping things like those Yomans from attacking the children!"

"Why would she risk her life with a child to take care of?" he asked, confused. "I mean, she should be at home, taking care of him."

"Well, that's part of the reason the chief, my old master Arthur, gave me to Ms. Angela to help take care of the boy. I always thought Mr. Arthur had a soft spot for Ms. Angela," she chuckled.

"You did not answer my question. Why would Angela risk her life while she had a child to take care of?" he asked, getting annoyed.

"I was built for social work but that don't mean I know everything about the Lombax mind, Shorty. However, I will admit that Ms. Angela was distressed when she was first found here. Her poor little heart had been broken by some no-good somebody."

"And we're all left to guess that that no-good somebody is the boy's father?" he asked, giving Ratchet a hard glare.

"Yessir, I could tell she was pregnant by the time she got here. It had only happened a few days ago."

"Do you know when Angela will return?" he asked.

"Oh, she'll be back before the sun sets, why don't you gentlemen sit down a bit?"

"Thank you."

After a few hours an armored figure appeared walking towards the house but stopped when it saw Ratchet, Clank and Qwark. It took off its helmet and revealed itself to be none other than Angela Cross. She looked at them in a shocked way for a while then seemingly calmed down and smiled at them.

"Well-well-well, Ratchet. So you've descended to the level of Qwark's sidekick?" she said in a horribly aloof way.

"What? Ratchet isn't my sidekick; actually you could say I'm _his_ sidekick."

"Oh, Ms. Angela! You're back and livin'!" she called out, having come out of the house.

"Hi Nana, where's Ty?" She looked around the area for the small boy.

"He got in a bit o' trouble with that boy you said could babysit him." Angela smacked herself.

"Damn it! They warned me about Bradley but did I listen? No!" she growled.

"One of those Yomans ended up cornering them, Ms. Chris and her friends in a clearing then this gentleman," she nodded at Ratchet, "rescues them from it." Angela turned on Ratchet, but his expectations for thanks were dashed when she spoke in that aloof voice again.

"Still playing the hero are we Ratchet?" Angela asked haughtily.

"Hey, I saved your kid and all you're going to do is sneer at me?" he asked in outrage.

"Wow, you really are thick! You haven't realized what's so special about Ty?" she countered in equal outrage.

"I realize he's your only child and…"

"He's not just my child Ratchet!" she interrupted.

"Oh yeah, he's also the child of…how did you say it Nana? 'Some no-good somebody'."

"Would you like to know who that 'no-good somebody' is?" she asked in a falsely pleasant tone.

"Very much."

"His name starts with an R and ends in a T with an A-T-C-H-E in the middle!" Ratchet looked at her in shock for a minute then laughed.

"Very funny Angela. Look, I know you're pissed that I ran off but my home planet was being attacked by Thyrranoids!"

"You know what we did the night before!" she snarled.

"It was only once!"

"It only takes one time!"

"But, we didn't really go that far did we?" Ratchet asked in a desperate way.

"We did Ratchet, and now I've been raising a child all by myself for 6 years!"

"Ms. Angela! That's hardly fair for these gentlemen!" she interjected.

"Angela, we came all this way looking for you!" he pleaded.

"Ha! Yeah right Ratchet!" she snorted. Clank jumped to Ratchet's defense.

"I can vouch for Ratchet, you trust me right?"

"Yeah, alright."

"I swore to myself that I would not search for my father until Ratchet had a family of his own and I pressed him to do this!"

"Okay, I guess that would make sense if it was your idea."

"So, please forgive Ratchet, he never meant to hurt you!"

"Yeah, right. So how many girls did he seduce after me?" she sneered.

"I didn't…" he began but Clank's inlaid programming to answer any question foiled him.

"Well, let's see. Sasha actually made the first move on Ratchet and Talwyn, I don't know what the entire deal between her and Ratchet was."

"I don't even know if there was anything between us rather than friendship," he admitted.

"Uh huh," she said in a bored way. Nana called from inside the house.

"Ms. Angela, I got dinner ready."

"Good. Could you bring Ty, he's not in trouble." Ratchet was relieved that there was an interruption to the tense conversation. Angela allowed Ratchet and Clank to enter before she did but stepped in front of the door when Qwark tried to walk in. He tried to follow her inside but he was blocked when the slamming door hit him straight in the nose. Qwark grabbed his nose in pain, then opened the door to walk in. Once everyone was gathered in the front hall, Nana appeared at the top of the stairs along with Ty, who yelled in delight when he saw his mother there and ran down to her. She knelt down and kissed the boy on the forehead.

"How have you been sweetheart?" she asked in a much calmer voice. It was amazing how quickly her attitude could change; Ratchet could sort of remember Clank suggesting that Angela had bi-polar.

"Okay. Are you mad at me?" he asked nervously.

"Course not. It wasn't your fault; I shouldn't have let Bradley babysit you when Chris wasn't available for the day."

"He wasn't a very good babysitter."

"I'm sorry about that." The boy hugged Angela in forgiveness before following her to the dining room. Soon after there was a crash and Ratchet looked around the corner, expecting to see Angela splayed out across the floor but it was actually the young boy. Angela helped him up and brushed him off. Ratchet and Clank heard a little mumbling growl coming out of his throat. The two friends smirked at each other; the kid definitely had a lot of Angela in him. Though, in the secret back of Clank's mind, Clank saw a lot of Ratchet in him too.

Dinner with the Crosses was rather uneventful, though Angela did "accidentally" bump into the table so that it hit Qwark in a certain area. They all decided to go to bed after that, seeing as there was still a lot of ill-feeling between Angela and Qwark about the entire Protopet fiasco. Later that night, after she had put Ty to bed and hit the sack herself Angela had a little feeling of hope. Hope that Ty may actually get to meet his father, have a father for the first time in his life. Then her thoughts darkened, it was hope and nothing more, Ratchet wasn't mature enough to accept responsibility for Ty. She sighed and pulled the blanket over her head, waiting for sleep to come.


	6. Like Father Like Son

**Chapter 6:**

**Like Father Like Son**

The three of them all engaged in their own activities until further notice; Clank and Qwark agreed to help Nana look after Ty for a while and Ratchet spent his time between being with the boy he did not believe could be his son and trying to get Angela to return to their dimension. He had just given up on trying to persuade Angela for the day and walked past Qwark, who had a lamp shade over his head.

"What are you doing Qwark?" he asked. Qwark put a finger up to the shade to tell Ratchet to be quiet and Ratchet walked off. He saw the little boy rush past him into the living room and shout: "Found you!" and heard Qwark's complaints when he found that he was found first. Ratchet spotted Clank posing as a table lamp, which was slightly less noticeable than Qwark doing it. The boy looked around for Clank with Qwark looking around with him. Ratchet coughed and pointed his thumb at Clank and Ty pulled off the shade.

"You gave me away, Ratchet," Clank joked.

"Oh well," he grinned.

"Will you play with us?" he begged.

"Well…oh alright!" he had to give into the look that Ty gave him and smiled as the boy gave the rules to them all. They all split up as Qwark counted and hid in different places. Ty squeezed under the living room table where he knew Qwark would never look while Clank put himself on a low shelf and Ratchet climbed inside of a closet.

After a few weeks, Angela started talking about leaving again and Ty was crying to her to not go. She kneeled down by him and reassured him that she would return soon and in the same condition as she was in now. He still looked worried and Ratchet decided to do something that would benefit both him and the kid in the end.

"Angela, how about I try my hand at this?" he offered.

"What do you mean?" she asked, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Hey, I brought all these weapons with me; I should at least kick some butt with them."

"Well, alright; make yourself some use to the society," she grumbled.

"I won't get in your way, I'll just help."

"Okay, we'll talk to the chief tomorrow."

Ratchet and Angela walked over to the city hall and called in on the chief. A robot secretary was typing on a computer and looked over at the two lombaxes and small robot that were approaching.

"Oh, Ms. Angela. The Chief has been expecting you for a while but who's this?" She gave Ratchet a suspicious look.

"I'm Ratchet…he's Clank," he added Clank as an afterthought.

"Hi there!" he greeted brightly.

"Yeah," she greeted unenthusiastically. "Well Ms. Angela if you and Mr. Ratchet would step into the Chief's office." Ratchet and Angela made no comment as they walked through the doors but Clank looked back and smiled at the secretary while putting his hand to his face with his two outside fingers made to look like a telephone.

"Call me."

Ratchet, Clank, and Angela walked into the office to see a white Lombax sitting behind the desk with a rather bored look on his face which brightened when he saw Angela.

"Ah, Angela, I'm glad to see you again," he smiled.

"Hi Arthur, this is Ratchet; an old friend."

"It's good to see you." He shook Ratchet's hand and as Ratchet looked at this Lombax's face he was reminded of another he had seen not too long ago.

"You look familiar."

"Chief Arthur Azimuth at your service sir."

"Azimuth?" his mind constructed the picture of a muscular white Lombax holding a double edged wrench. "Are you, by any chance, related to a General Alister Azimuth?"

"He was my father, why?" he asked.

"I knew him." Azimuth looked shocked.

"Where is he, how is he?" he demanded.

"He's dead, died two months ago," he said dully.

"My father's dead?" Ratchet saw the pain on his face and quickly reached inside of his pocket to find a watch that had a picture of two Lombaxes on the inside.

"This belonged to him." The chief took it and looked at the picture of the two lombaxes.

"That's him, but who's the other Lombax?"

"That, that's my father. They were like brothers."

"So, _you_ are Kaden's son. I heard many stories about your father and how he was one of the few lombaxes that stayed in the other dimension."

"Yeah. There was me, my parents, Angela, and General Alister Azimuth."

"Yeah and his parents were killed so it just left the three of us in separate galaxies," Angela added.

"I was in Solana, she was in Bogon and your father was in Polaris."

"And back to the subject of our mission…" she directed.

"Yes the mission. You two, as I believe Ratchet shall join along, need to get to the Yoman city and destroy the Mechanoid factory. There's a power generator at the top so if you hit right it should blow the entire place up."

"Now that's the kind of mission I like."

"You seemed like that kind of person." He turned over to Angela and smiled a bit. "How's Ty been?"

"Oh fine, he's just like any other kid his age."

"He's a good kid," he agreed.

"Well, enough small talk. Good luck on your mission."

_Author's Note: Please Review, I like seeing appraising notes._


	7. The First Mission

_Author's Note: I would like to thank Elementricks, Secret Agent Pointless, and RoboticMasterMind for reviewing and I would also like to give another shout out to Elementricks and RoboticMasterMind for favoriting my story._

**Chapter 7:**

**The First Mission**

A green ship flew through the vacuum of space between the planet the lombaxes inhabited and the Yoman world. It touched down outside of a huge city and two armored forms leapt out. Their eyes rode up the vast walls of the city and when it became too much for their range of vision; their heads began to move up as well.

"Impressive, isn't it?" she asked with a smile towards Ratchet's awed expression.

"Yeah, how do we get in?"

"These gates are near impenetrable, unless you have a RYNO?" She turned to Ratchet hopefully, who shook his head.

"Nope."

"It appears that we shall have to find a way to either go over or under the wall," he observed.

"I think getting over it is our best bet."

"But how are we supposed to get over _that_?" he interjected. Angela thought for a minute.

"Well, you have your Hoverboots right?" she asked.

"Those aren't nearly powerful enough to get over that." Angela ignored this comment.

"And Clank, do you have those Jet Boots and that Thruster Pack?" Clank nodded in understanding and confirmation.

"Yes, I believe I know what your idea is. Ratchet, at the same time we must activate the Hoverboots, Jet Boots, and Thruster Pack so as to get the lift necessary for reaching the top of that wall."

"Come on guys, you seriously think that'll work?" he asked skeptically.

"It's our only chance." Ratchet agreed despite his belief that it could never possible work. Ratchet stood at a distance from Angela with Clank attached to his back and squatted to show he was ready.

"Five-four-three-two-one…" Ratchet shot into the air at an amazing speed, leaving Angela to dart back from the smoke. Ratchet looked down to see Angela's towering form reduced to a blue speck on the surface of the planet. Ratchet started descending over the wall and dropped on the inside of the city. He called Angela through the communicator and confirmed his position with her.

"Now, find a way to open the gate from the inside so I can join you." Ratchet found a gate house and looked inside to see a small creature sitting with his feet on the console, sipping a steaming liquid. Ratchet whistled and the creature looked over and took out a weapon but his speed proved insufficient compared to Ratchet's. He quickly flipped a switch and opened the gate to allow Angela to enter but had not expected an entire squad of Yomans in mechs to surround her. He flew over their heads and landed in the middle of the circle, next to Angela.

"Great work, genius," she growled. Ratchet realized that now he couldn't really do her any good and smiled apologetically back at her.

"Oops."

"Shut ya mouth foo!" one of the Yomans shouted.

"Says who?" she challenged.

"Me, the leader of the Yomans. I am Mr. Tee!"

"Mr. Tee? That somehow sounds like a very bad parody of someone famous in an alternate universe." The Yoman leader ignored this.

"What you foos doing in my city?" he asked.

"Uh, we're tourists," he grinned weakly.

"Humph. You foos got no right to barge in here. Take 'em to where all the other lombies go."

"Angela, grab onto me," he hissed so the Yomans couldn't hear.

"What?"

"Now!" He didn't wait for her to grab him; he grabbed her by the waist and rocketed out of the middle of the Yomans.

"RAAAATCHEEEEET! PUT ME DOWWWWWWWWWN!" she screamed.

"Are you sure you want me to do that?" Angela looked down and saw how far they were from the ground.

"Eeek! Don't put me down, don't put me down!" Ratchet laughed to himself and even Clank allowed himself a chuckle. They landed on top of a large building and Ratchet yelled at Angela that they had come back to solid ground. She looked around herself and laughed nervously, ignoring Ratchet's smirk and Clank's chuckle.

"I think we've got more to do than just blow up that factory. We have to find those lombaxes they're holding captive."

"Yeah but, where do we look?" Angela pointed at a Yoman mech heading into a barrack and going down an elevator.

"What makes you think that's where the lombaxes are being held?" he asked.

"That's the kind of mech made to deal with prisoners so we should follow it." Ratchet nodded then bowed elegantly before her, gesturing in the direction of the mech.

"Ladies first."

"Ughh, Ratchet," she groaned. She floated down with Ratchet and walked down by herself to see what there was to see. It was a mine and there was someone crying in the middle of the floor. She walked over there to see a young girl Lombax trying to get a pair of Holo-cuffs off her wrists. She looked over at Angela and the elder Lombax pulled out a Holo-key and fitted it into the lock. After working on it for a few minutes, the cuffs came loose and the girl rubbed her wrists sorely.

"What's your name?" she asked soothingly.

"I'm Carrie."

"Brad's little sister?" The girl nodded.

"You know my brother?"

"Yes, he's been a bit of a wreck since you were lost." She nodded again then looked back up at Angela.

"Are you going to take me away from here?" she asked timidly.

"You and everyone else," Angela assured.

"They're all down there, but you can't do it all yourself and I can't fight."

"My mission partner will help," she assured, though not without adding in a low mumble: "That is if he can get down here without tripping every alarm there is." She called Ratchet and saw his face on the inside of his helmet.

"Angela, how are you?" he asked cheerfully.

"It's not funny Ratchet. This is where the children are held, the Yomans have turned them into a slave labor force."

"I can't help; I've got problems of my own right now." He looked backwards then returned his attention to Angela.

"What?" she asked.

"Those Yomans that surrounded us before hand are chasing me through the skies. I'm really getting the hang of this self-flight thing," he grinned. Angela sighed.

"Alright Ratchet, I'll do it myself. I haven't got these for no reason." She pulled out two wrenches from her back, more elegant and curved than Gadgetron Omniwrenches.

"You get two wrenches? That is just not fair," he said jokingly.

"I'll call you later." She ended her call and grabbed Carrie by the hand so that she could lead her to the main room where most of the lombaxes were held. Angela crept along the side of the room with Carrie in tow to see the mech she had seen enter the mine standing over a pair of young Lombax siblings with a Plasma whip in hand.

"You two foos, get your butts movin'!" The older male held his younger sister in his arms and stared up at the Yoman.

"You shouldn't work her so hard; she can't lift stuff like what you make her."

"I don't care foo. Work, work hard and love the pain it's good for ya." He whipped the younger girl and laughed at the screams that escaped her mouth. This was just too much for Angela, her maternal instincts were going off like no tomorrow; this thing was beating a girl that was no different than her own young one and if these creatures would get their hands on him… Angela yelled and fired Dual Lacerator blasts from her two wrenches at the mech. The large machine started to break down but Angela's triumphant battle was broken by a hit on the back of the head by another mech that sent her to the ground, unconscious.

Angela awoke to find herself chained to a wall by her wrists, the Holo-cuffs digging their way through her fur into her flesh. There were several other lombaxes in this prison and the one thing she noticed was that she was the only adult in the room. The small head of a young girl was pressed against her left thigh as the child slept. However, whatever sleep that child had gotten was interrupted as a Yoman walked in the room with its mech and disconnected Angela's Holo-cuffs from the wall to take her to the upper part of the prison. Her back was pressed against a pillar and the Holo-cuffs pulled behind her. The Yoman leader faced her in his mech and chuckled softly.

"So, you and your other foo friend thought you could go and free my slaves. We need 'em to dig up the Raritarium in these parts for our mechs and no two lombies are gonna stop us." He ended his speech with a triumphant laugh but the cracking of a whip from the top of the hall brought his attention up there. It was Ratchet, a look of pure fury on his face and in his hands were his Megacorp Omniwrench and a Plasma whip. (If you haven't figured it out yet, this entire scene is one big parody of _Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom_.) Mr. Tee yelled at several Yomans to kill Ratchet but a few flicks and twists of the Plasma whip sent those mechs to the scrap heap. Ratchet then pointed his wrench at Mr. Tee and his mech and unleashed a flood of Agents of Doom. The little robots cackled and jumped into the gears and works of Mr. Tee's mech, exploding upon impact. The large piece of machinery crumpled into a heap, leaving the little man to pull himself out. Ratchet picked up Mr. Tee and stared at him with a deep, hateful look.

"Now, you piece of Yoman filth. You stop kidnapping the children of our people and leave us all the hell _alone_," he growled darkly.

"Yes sir, please sir that kinda pain ain't as good as the other kind, the exercise kind."

"Good; anything else, any useful information on stopping the rest of this slave trade?" he asked.

"Well, for the past few months we've been getting most of our slaves from someone else that kidnaps them for us, he says his name is Ratchet." Ratchet gave Angela a mystified look.

"What? But that's my name, and I don't deal in slaves. I know what it's like to be enslaved."

"That's all I know on the matter sir, so please put me down," he begged. Ratchet dropped the small man and inserted his Holo-key into the hole in Angela's cuffs to break them free. She rubbed her wrists sorely and muttered her thanks for getting her out of that sticky situation. All the slaves ran out of the lower prison and yelled their collective thanks. Ratchet looked at Angela in loss to say how they all got out but they noticed Clank standing on a stool, swinging his Holo-key and chuckling good-naturedly. There was a burst of small bodies pushing their collective way out of the doors and flowing through the street to the door outside like a river going downhill. Both adult lombaxes fought their way to the side of the liberated children and nodded to each other about finally getting their real job done. Ratchet grabbed Angela by the waist and flew up to the top of the Mechanoid factory. She pulled out her wrenches and fired two Mini-Rockets at the large power generator, setting off a chain reaction that destroyed the entire building. Ratchet swerved around the blast, and landed far outside the city to where all the children had gathered. Ratchet jumped high in excitement and ran circles around Angela.

"Oh yeah, I'm an Iron Lombax!" he cheered.

"Whoopee," she said sarcastically, "hey Iron Lombax, your tail's on fire." Ratchet looked at his backside to see that the little tuft at the end of his tail had indeed caught ablaze.

"EXTINGUISH MEEEEEEEEE!" he yelled and ran around, looking for a water source when Clank took Ratchet's dropped wrench and doused him with the Sprout-o-Matic. Ratchet felt his wet backside, whistled in relief, and looked back at Clank.

"Thanks."

"No problem." Clank couldn't help but chuckle.

"Let's get out of here." Ratchet looked around at the hundreds of Lombax children surrounding them and then at their ship, which sat four.

"I think we're gonna need a bigger ship."

_Author's Note: And that's it, don't worry I'll still post next chapter as well today since this is an especially long one and the next is very short. Geek out._


	8. Back on the Home Front

**Chapter 8:**

**Back on the Home Front**

The large cargo ship landed in the middle of the settlement with a crowd of parents who had lost children to the Yomans surrounding the landing space. The door opened and all the children ran out to their parents and siblings with Ratchet and Angela coming out afterwards. There was much rejoicing over the fact that the children had returned to the settlement and the chief himself greeted Ratchet and Angela upon them arriving.

"Thank You, because of your actions the children of the lombaxes have been returned." Angela smiled at him and shook his hand.

"I hate to admit it, but I let my heart get in front of my head. So, bringing Ratchet was probably my best decision along the entire course of the mission," she admitted. None of them noticed the chief's expression darken considerably.

"Yeah, Ratchet the _Iron Lombax_." Clank chuckled again.

"You guys are gonna keep on harping on about that aren't you?" Both Clank and Angela snorted in laughter but a small gold furred body tackling Angela's legs made her stop to scoop up the bundle.

"Mommy, you're back!" Ty cried joyously.

"Told ya I'd be back." He hugged her tightly and when he pulled away, Ratchet and Clank noticed there was an oil stain where his arm had been.

"Angela, I think Ty needs a bath. How'd you get oil all over yourself?" he chuckled.

"I was in Bolt's shop; he's teaching me all about how ships work and that stuff."

"I know all about that stuff," he said.

"You do?"

"Sure, how else do you think I got off that dusty old rock I grew up on?" he joked.

"And who's Bolt?" Clank added. Angela smacked herself in the head.

"Oh man, Ratchet I was so stupid you have to meet him!" she cried, grabbing his arm to drag him away.

"Okay, who is he?" Ratchet asked. Angela grinned but didn't answer.

"Follow me." Angela dragged Ratchet by the arm out of the celebratory clearing, neither noticing the spiteful glance the chief shot at Ratchet as he had taken Angela's arm.

The sounds of a wrench cranking a bolt came from the dirty and dusty old shack that Angela dragged Ratchet towards and Ratchet just had time to glance at the oil stained sign as he was dragged inside. It read _Boris' Ship Shack: If Boris can't fix it, it ain't broke_. Ratchet couldn't help but chuckle as he remembered it was the exact same slogan for Big Al's store in Metropolis. Angela called out the name from the sign and an elderly Lombax poked his head out from under a ship, his oil stained ears making his stripes almost unnoticeable.

"Eh? What? Who are ya, whatta ya want?" he called out in a voice reminiscent of an old west prospector.

"Bolt it's me, Angela," she reassured.

"Little Angela, huh? You just get back from one 'o them danged missions, teaching those hippy Yomans a lesson?" he asked.

"Yeah, and there's someone you really have to meet. This is Ratchet." She pulled Ratchet forward.

"Ratchet…Ratchet…sounds familiar," the old Lombax said, tapping his chin.  
Ratchet: "I don't remember anyone named Boris or Bolt," he muttered to Angela. Suddenly, Boris seemed to recognize the name.

"Wait a dadgum minute. Ratchet? Kaden's boy?"

"Yeah," he said nervously. The old Lombax jumped into the air joyously.

"Hallelujah, the family's back together!"

"What?" he asked.

"Kaden's my Brother-in-law. Woohoo, boy; I'm your mother's brother."

"You're my uncle?" he asked, shocked

"Yes, dadgumit. That's what I just said."

"Part of my family survived? I don't believe it; wait a minute, if you're my uncle, why didn't you raise me instead of sending me to that orphanage on Veldin?" he asked.

"Don't ask me boy. That was all your father's decision, he decided to stay behind with old Alley, well, Alley didn't exactly have a choice did he? But he made a decision to stay, thought you'd be better off in the old dimension." He then turned to Angela. "How's old Max Apogee? Oh lord, speak of the devil." Both adult lombaxes looked over to see an elderly Markazian standing in the doorway, Talwyn's father, Max Apogee.

"You boring more of your people to death with your crazy stories?" he asked gruffly.

"No, I was reuniting with my nephew," he called.

"Oh, okay then."

"You're Max Apogee, _the_ Max Apogee?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes."

"I'm Ratchet; I'm friends with your daughter," he introduced.

"Tally? How is she, Cronk and Zephyr haven't blown each other to bits yet?" he asked with a barking laugh.

"No, she's fine and they're still in one piece each."

"That's good, always did worry about her safety since her, heh, 'big sister' went off on her own adventures."

"Talwyn's a tough girl; she can take care of herself," she said.

"Yeah, so it's really been great seeing you Max. Now, uh, do I call you Uncle Boris or Uncle Bolt?" he asked, turning to the elderly Lombax. Boris shook his head and looked back to Ratchet.

"Eh? Sorry, my mind wanders sometimes. Not to mention this old arm giving me problems." He then pulled something out from under the vehicle he working on, it was his left arm but not exactly an arm. His left hand had been lost at some point of his life and he had replaced it with a wrench; like the rest of him it was dirty and stained with oil.

"I lost that when Tachyon attacked Fastoon, I was a member of the Praetorian Guard in my day," he said with a nostalgic sigh.

"Right, well we're gonna head off, it's getting late; goodnight." Ratchet and Ty followed Angela home to where Nana had prepared dinner for them. Qwark was waiting on the porch and smiled at Ratchet when he saw them all.

"You've become a full hero my friend, now you have a title." Ratchet raised his eyebrows

"I wasn't aware that heroes needed titles."

"Of course, all the great heroes have titles. Captain Qwark, Hydragirl, Kid Nova, Captain Qwark, you get the picture…Iron Lombax." Ratchet groaned again.

"Oh no, not that again. It was a one time joke."

"Right, I get ya." Qwark winked and Ratchet looked at Angela to see her rolling her eyes but smiling at the same time. It was classic Qwark material.

They were all sitting around the dinner table, eating a piece of native meat that Ratchet had never heard of but liked and a mashed native spud. Ty sat in the corner of the table between Qwark and Ratchet; he took a small bite of spud and looked at his mother.

"You know that the big hovercraft race is tomorrow, there's a junior division this year and I was wondering if, maybe, you could let me enter." His voice had become less confident with each word he spoke and by the time he finished, he was so low down in his seat that just the top of his head and his big ears were visible.

"Tyler Maximilian Cross!" Ty flinched, whenever his mom used his full name, he knew she wasn't joking around. "You've watched those races and you know how dangerous they are, I could never let you do that!" she shouted, motherly worry pronounced in each syllable of her voice.

"But mom, it's the biggest race ever, if I win…"

"Tyler, you're 6 years old, there are 16 year olds in this competition, you couldn't possibly win!" His ears went down and he slipped out of his chair and walked to his room.

"Chile' you ain't finished ya food," she observed as the young Lombax walked away.

"I'm not hungry," he muttered. Clank looked over at Angela as the sound of the door to Ty's room sounded.

"That wasn't exactly fair," he said complacently. Angela sighed and slumped back in her chair.

"I know but, I think about those races and what happens in them. Every year I've watched there's been at least one crash and one severe injury and imagining Ty racing in that." Tears formed in her eyes as she said: "I just can't stand the thought of losing him!" She had burst into tears over the prospect and buried her face in her hands. Ratchet got off of his seat and placed a tentative arm around her waist. When she did not shake him off or, thankfully, smash his diaphragm out his rear end, he hugged her and whispered in her ear.

"Angela, he's safe. No one's going to hurt him, and he won't enter the races if you tell him not to."

"When I was in that mine, I saw one of those Yomans beating a Lombax girl and it came into my head that," she raised her face to look at Ratchet, "what if that had been Ty? What if those creatures got their hands on him?" She burst into tears again and crushed Ratchet in a large hug. He gave a desperate look to Clank and Qwark but Nana came and put her arm around Angela.

"Come on Chile', ya tired and you need to sleep." Angela let go of Ratchet and allowed herself to be taken to her room by Nana. Ratchet and Qwark soon after decided that, as their hosts had fallen asleep, they should at least go to the room they had been allowed to stay in. Ratchet looked at the top bunk that had drooped so low under Qwark's tremendous weight that it was within a foot of his snout. He made a mental note to watch out for that in the morning and fell into a deep sleep.

_Author's Note: Push the (review) button Max. Geek out._


	9. Return of Klunk

_Author's Note: I would like to thank RoboticMasterMind for being the _only person_ to review._

**Chapter 9:**

**The Return of Klunk**

Ty looked at the ceiling of his room, still hearing his mother's words in his ears: _"You're six years old, there are sixteen year olds in this competition, you couldn't possibly win!" _He got up and went over to the bathroom across the hall. A quiet voice whispered over to him and his ears perked up to listen better.

"Psst, young man, come closer." Ty walked in the direction of the voice, "closer" Ty walked farther, "not that close, augh!" Ty looked under his feet to see a small robot that looked strangely like Clank.

"You idiot! I mean, hello there."

"Clank? I didn't know robots could grow hair." He reached down to touch the point on Clank's chin but the robot turned his head and put out his hand to stop him.

"Don't touch the beard, and no, I'm not Clank, I'm his…brother, Klunk."

"Klunk?" he asked.

"Yes, I've heard your dilemma and I want to help."

"What dilemma?" Ty asked, scratching his head.

"You want to race, but your mother is too concerned for your safety," he said silkily.

"She doesn't think I can do it," he growled.

"Well I say you can; how about you enter the race and then you'll show her," the small robot grinned evilly.

"But that would get me in trouble."

"No, of course not my boy, but you should still be careful about going there. You take that copy of the entry form and find something that has her signature on it." Ty did as he was told and Klunk put both pieces of paper in front of himself and did something then the signature of Ty's mother appeared on the entry form. Klunk handed it to Ty and lead him out into the street.

"Come on, we need to get this form in by midnight." Ty followed Klunk unquestioningly, not noticing that Klunk was leading him the complete wrong way. Klunk nodded at Ty and walked into a large building with Ty following; a series of scuffling noises followed and Ty's muffled yells were the last that was heard from the boy that night.

That morning, Angela got up and walked over to her son's room; she knocked on the door tentatively and waited for Ty to say something. She heard nothing and thought he must be asleep so she walked in and looked at the small lump that his head made under the covers. She patted the lump but found the sound it had made odd, she threw off the covers and her eyes opened in alarm.

Ratchet's head shot up and collided painfully with Qwark's enormous backside after Angela burst into the room, shouting about Ty missing. Ratchet ran for his armor and wrench, shouting for Clank. Ratchet and Clank leapt into their ship and rose high above the settlement, they initiated a Bio-scan for Ty but no trace of him was found in the settlement or in the surrounding area. Angela was going into maternal instinct overdrive, she had no idea where her child was and in what condition he was in. When Ratchet stood before her and gave her the news that he couldn't find him, she took her anxiety out on him.

"Ratchet you idiot, this is all your fault!" she screamed.

"My fault, what do you mean? I didn't tell him to run away, it's much more of your fault," he countered.

"If you hadn't…you hadn't…I don't care, it's just your fault!" she spluttered. Clank stepped in-between the two lombaxes and put his arms out.

"Angela, calm down."

"Calm down, calm_ down_? Don't you _dare_ tell me to calm down! My little boy is missing, he could be hurt, he could be injured, the Yomans could have got him…" Angela's anger faded and was replaced by a look of horror. "The Yomans got him, oh no!"

"We don't quite know if they got him," he said, attempting to calm her down. Angela's anger now gone, she scooped up Ratchet and crushed him, crying into his shoulder.

"Oh Ratchet, I have to be sure." They were distracted from this awkward moment when footsteps rang out behind them.

"Ms. Angela!" They looked over to see Chris running towards them, panting from the length of her run.

"I saw Ty last night, he was following that robot." She nodded at Clank.

"That is impossible; I was in the room with Ratchet and Qwark."

"I noticed there was something odd about you, for one I think I saw you had red eyes and a weird thing sticking out of your chin." Ratchet and Clank looked at each other, a look of knowing in their eyes.

"Klunk stowed away on the ship."

"Klunk?" she asked.

"A copy of Clank created by Dr. Nefarious."

"Dr. Nefarious?" Angela asked with even more confusion.

"I don't have enough time to explain. If Klunk's got Ty, where do you think he is?" he asked.

"I do believe I can lock onto Klunk's frequency of operation, it is quite unique."

"So you can find Ty?"

"Yes I can."


	10. The New Mission

**Chapter 10:**

**The New Mission**

Angela's green fighter flew through space to an unexplored world nearby the Yoman world. Ratchet held Clank in front of him, tracking Klunk across the planet. They traced Klunk to a large settlement with another large fence around it. Ratchet floated up over the fence and dropped quietly on the other side. Another gate guard found himself outmatched by Ratchet and the gate opened, this time without the entire settlement being alerted. They met in the center of the settlement and looked around to see where they could possibly find Ty. Ratchet suddenly remembered something that Qwark had once told him and quoted it to the others. "The best stuff always seems to be in the biggest buildings." They saw that the quote made sense and found the largest of all the buildings. Angela banged on the large hangar door and growled in frustration as it proved to be unbreakable. Ratchet tapped her on the shoulder and pointed to Clank.

"I can squeeze through this door; I will open the large door so you can join me." He slipped into the building and looked around in alarm as he realized the magnitude of defense on that door. He got back out and explained to a very irritated Angela that they couldn't use the large door.

"So we just have to trust you alone?" She looked at him angrily and Clank quickly slipped back into the building. Clank sighed and prepared himself for the fight he would have to endure to get to Ty and Klunk. He snuck past several Yoman guards and crawled into a ventilation shaft. Clank then dropped out of the ventilation shaft behind a Yoman guard. The guard was alone so Clank leapt up, kicked him around, and slammed it to the ground, destroying it.

After several minutes of dodging Yoman guards and sneaking through hallways, Clank peered around the corner in the back of the building and saw Ty locked in a small cage that was suspended from the ceiling. Klunk was pacing underneath the cage, grinding his metallic teeth in anxiety as a message was playing on the screen behind the cage. The silhouette of a figure was speaking to Klunk in a very badly disguised voice, and Clank couldn't believe the voice he could hear giving Klunk orders, it was the chief.

"What do you mean one of them infiltrated the building? How can they know where you are?" he growled I rage.

"I do not know, it is possible that Clank was able to track my frequency of operation to this point, they must have sent him," Klunk responded coolly.

"I don't care who infiltrated the base, I just care that you destroy them. The plan must go…as planned!" he finished weakly.

"I will not disappoint you."

"Pray to yourself you don't." Azimuth's figure disappeared from the screen and Klunk started ordering the security to find Clank. Clank stepped out from around the corner.

"No need Klunk, I am right here." Klunk stared for a while then laughed.

"You fool; you are as dumb as the squishies that you hang around with. And even among those lowly creatures, they are considered unintelligent I bet," he crowed.

"Perhaps, however, it seems that you are taking orders from a 'squishy'." He fingered quotations around the word "squishy".

"He freed me from the undesirable form that Lombax friend of yours put me in." Clank chuckled, remembering how Ratchet had turned Klunk into a vacuum cleaner.

"Yes, it did kind of _suck_ to be you at that moment." Clank chuckled again. Klunk growled.

"Enough small talk," he snapped his fingers "disassemble him." A pair of Yomans in mechs pointed their guns at Clank.

"Hmm, I see that the Yomans have given you security in return for the Lombax children you have kidnapped." Clank's eyes couldn't help but drift up to Ty who was huddled in the cage he was held in.

"Ah yes, he is the son of a friend of yours, perhaps of _two_ of your friends." He too looked up at Ty "He does have a striking resemblance to his father, doesn't he?"

"And who would that be?" Klunk chuckled evilly.

"You know perfectly well, that idiot squishy; your carousel." Clank growled at his evil twin.

"I refuse to believe that Ratchet went that far at such a young age."

"Clank, Clank, my dear brother, what happened to your cool logic?" he chuckled.

"You have no right to call me your brother."

"Answer the question."

"There are no facts that would support the idea of Ratchet being the boy's father." Klunk looked annoyed.

"What, do I have to draw you a picture?"

"It might help," Clank chuckled. Klunk snapped his fingers and the Yoman mechs produced a chalkboard and chalk.

"First off, you know that the night before you and Ratchet left the Bogon galaxy, Ratchet slept with the boy's mother."

"Yes."

"You know the boy was born the length of the Lombax gestation period after his mother left our dimension. A.K.A. the night she slept with Ratchet."

"Yes, go on."

"And there is the striking resemblance between the two lombaxes which would tend to lead to the idea of them being father and son."

"I see your point. Now if we may get to the true point of our meeting?" he led.

"Yes, it would be rather nice to get away from this rubbish of squishy breeding." He clicked his fingers and the Yoman's guns fired at the spot where Clank was but a quick movement of his made it impossible to hit the miniscule robot. He fired a bomb from his wrist that dismantled the stabilization of the mechs.

"A little something the Agency gave me before I left." He showed off the explosive cufflink to Klunk.

"Very clever, but as I always said: probably the most important part of any plan is the backup plan." Klunk pointed to a glowing launch pad like thing behind himself.

"Ah, a growth pad. You shall grow and attempt to squash me." Clank chuckled.

"What is it, laughing at Death?" he mocked.

"No, it is just how primitive it is. So last year, internal growth devices are the thing these days." Clank's lower half expanded, then his top half, followed by his head. "I visited Al before I left."

"Impressive, but my plan is far beyond what you can comprehend." He too grew to tremendous size but then opened his stomach compartment and the cage that held Ty was sucked inside.

"Goodbye, Clank." He flew up through the ceiling and landed a few hundred meters behind the building.

Ratchet and Angela saw the crash and watched in horror as the tremendously sized robot flew up through the top of the building and landed several hundred meters away, in a convenient clearing. Clank followed the evil robot and faced him in the clearing. Ratchet clambered up on Clank's shoulder and was soon joined by Angela who perched on Clank's other shoulder. A machine gun popped out of the side of Klunk's arm and fired at Clank, who dodged quickly. Clank launched several rockets at Klunk which caused Klunk to fall to the ground. The sound of metal banging against metal inside of Klunk's chest compartment and the yells of a young boy made Angela start yelling at Clank.

"Get Ty out of there before you start attempting to crush Klunk, you'll kill my son!" she screamed. Ratchet thought for a minute then turned to clank.

"Clank, throw me at Klunk!" he shouted.

"What are you planning?" Clank asked.

"I'll get inside of him and get Ty out of there."

"I'll go too," she said.

"No, I might not make it. Ty needs you to stay alive."

"But…"

"So long." Ratchet jumped into Clank's hand and was catapulted onto Klunk's chest plate. Ratchet's gravity boots latched onto Klunk's metal armor and Ratchet attempted to break inside of his chest plate. Clank grabbed the edge of Klunk's stomach compartment and pulled it open a few feet, allowing Ratchet to slip inside. Ratchet landed in front of the small cage and faced the boy who was standing at the edge.

"Mr. Ratchet!" he cried.

"Ty, get away from the door." Ty backed to the far edge of the cage and Ratchet blasted the door off. The small boy launched himself against Ratchet's chest and the elder Lombax called for Clank to let them out. The compartment door was pried open and Ratchet jumped onto the surface of Klunk's armor and ran up the arm Clank was using to pry open the compartment door. Ratchet handed Ty over to Angela and placed himself back on Clank's shoulder, watching Angela perch on the other with Ty in her arms. Clank punched Klunk in the head and fired Rockets towards his eyes. Klunk was blasted away from Clank and shrank himself on the growth pad, running away into the depths of the building. Clank shrank back to normal size and the three lombaxes were reunited with the ground. Angela crushed Ty in a large hug and stroked the back of his head with her thumb."

"Ty, I was so worried about you! I was afraid that they had killed you!" she sobbed.

"Mom, I'm okay so please stop crushing me." Angela stopped crushing Ty and just held him with her mouth pressed on his forehead.

"When I first confronted Klunk, I saw something quite disturbing. Klunk isn't the chief of operation for this plan after all. The chief is the chief of operation for this plan." Both adult lombaxes looked at him in shock.

"The Chief? Why?" he asked.

"I do not know, but I do know that Klunk was taking orders from him and was responsible for most of the child kidnappings for the last month."

"But why?" she asked, holding Ty close.

"I don't know, but we're gonna find out," he growled, leading the way towards the ship.

_Author's Note: Peese Review._


	11. A New Plan Unfolds

_Author's Note: I would like to thank RoboticMasterMind and Secret Agent Pointless for reviewing, more of you should do it. I am going to be gone until Wednesday so I'm going to upload three chapters today and the last three chapters on Wednesday. You have the word of The Geek it will be so, Geek out._

**Chapter 11:**

**A New Plan Unfolds**

Ratchet, Angela, Clank, and Ty went back to the house and were greeted by Qwark and Nana, the latter of whom had dinner ready. The next morning, Ratchet and Angela walked over to visit the chief and have a little talk about his affiliation with Klunk. The secretary robot let them into the chief's office and they both faced him. He looked up from the seemingly boring business and smiled pleasantly.

"Ah, Ratchet and Angela. How may I help you?"

"We're just a little bit upset by what we heard that Clank heard while he was saving Ty," Angela said coolly.

"And what did you hear?" he asked, still pleasantly, of the small robot.

"I heard you bossing Klunk around; Klunk, the one who is responsible for the majority of child kidnappings for the past month," Clank accused.

"So, you believe that I am responsible for the child kidnappings?" the chief said in a voice of false hurt.

"We don't believe it, we know it," Ratchet growled. Azimuth stood up, a falsely somber look on his face.

"Ah, my-my, I do believe I have been caught red-handed," he sneered.

"Why, why did you do it?" she demanded.

"It wasn't that I wanted to kidnap the children of our race. I just needed something that would make sure Ratchet was rightfully the most despised creature in this universe." He finished with an evil glare in Ratchet's direction.

"What?" Ratchet asked, shocked.

"I placed all of the deliveries of slaves to the Yomans under the name 'Ratchet'; I used Klunk to kidnap them. You see, everything I have done has been perfectly unfolded so that no one but you could possibly be the culprit." The chief grinned.

"You mean you did all those horrible things so that everyone would hate Ratchet," Angela growled, fists clenched.

"In a way, but there was so much more to it than that. He wanted us to leave and return to the universe that we previously inhabited the one full of Cragmites from what I've heard."

"They have no leader, we can beat them," Ratchet insisted.

"Perhaps, but at the cost of hundreds of lives," he challenged.

"You don't even know if there will be a conflict," Ratchet argued.

"Sorry, but I'd rather not risk it. You got people talking of returning; I can't allow that to happen for the sake of the Lombax race." The chief was now face to face with Ratchet, and now more noticeably than ever much bigger and stronger than him. Angela stepped between them with her hands outstretched to block them from each other.

"Maybe, but couldn't you have simply said that no one could leave?" she asked of the chief.

"I don't have that kind of power, as soon as they leave the community, they can do whatever they want."

"The Cragmites are in Polaris, we don't even have to go there," Ratchet argued, but Azimuth seemed finished.

"Enough," he snapped his fingers and several Praetorian Guards appeared. "Get Ratchet and his robot friend, they are responsible for the kidnappings."

"No, don't do this!" she cried. The Praetorian Guards surrounded Ratchet and Clank, pointing the weapons into their faces. Angela took out her wrenches and starting hitting the guards with them. Two others grabbed her by the arms and dragged her to the side of the commotion. Ratchet blasted through the Praetorian Guards and saw the chief pointing his own double ended wrench, armed with a gun mod, at Angela's face as two guards held her against the wall. Ratchet raised his wrench as though he was going to throw it at the traitor but Azimuth's finger half-squeezed the trigger and Ratchet realized he could never hurt him before he killed Angela. He growled at him and dropped the wrench, allowing two Praetorian Guards to grab his arms and pull them behind his back, binding them with Holo-cuffs. Azimuth faced Ratchet and then snapped his fingers at the guards holding Angela.

"You, lousy son-of-a-bitch, you will not get away with this," she growled.

"My dear, I do believe I just have. Take her home and make sure she doesn't leave." The two groups of guards went in opposite directions, Ratchet's captors took him to a drop ship and Angela's dragged her off to her home.

Nana, Qwark, and Ty watched Angela as she sat at the table and told them of what had transpired in the chief's office. Ty clambered up on her lap and wrapped his arms around her waist. She patted the boy's head and kissed it.

"So what are we gonna do?" he asked.

"Do what chile?" Nana asked of the boy.

"Get Mr. Ratchet out of the prison," he said.

"We can't do that chile," the old robot reasoned. Angela put out a hand.

"Don't tell him that. We can save him and we will, I owe him," Angela said.

"Well said, we shall save our friend from a dastardly fate!" he said impressively.

"Qwark!" she growled.

"Now, chile, you got yourself in enough trouble already. You're under house arrest for god's sake."

"For nothing, he's framed Ratchet," she argued.

"Why is Ratchet always being framed for stuff?" Qwark pondered to himself. Ty pulled on his mother's hand so she looked down at him.

"Mom, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it?" she said.

"Mom, I heard Clank and that other robot, Klunk, talking. They said something about Dad." Angela's face had a slightly fearful look on it. "Mom, is Mr. Ratchet really my dad?" she asked.

"Well, he's not your dad as he didn't take care of you, but he is your father," she admitted. Nana interfered.

"Ms. Angela is this really the time? You're telling ya boy that his father is the most wanted criminal in these parts."

"Ratchet isn't a criminal Nana, he's been framed," she growled.

"Now, you get all those ridiculous ideas out of ya head, some sleep might do ya good." Angela couldn't help but notice the strength behind the hand on her shoulder.

"Nana, I'm going to get him out of there, no matter what."

"Now you stop acting like a young chile and start thinking sensibly," the old robot ordered. Angela stood up, placing Ty on the floor.

"I'm leaving this house, and I'll take Ty and Qwark with me." Nana stood in front of the door.

"I can't allow you to do that Ms. Angela." She grew larger and more dangerous; Ty cowered behind Qwark's massive body as the figure that had helped raise him became a monster.

"You gonna stay here and ain't gonna associate yaselves with any more criminals." The hand of the giant robot swept Angela to the side, into a small table. Ty ran to his mother but was picked up by the threatening robot.

"You stop this nonsense Ms. Angela, think of ya boy." Angela glared at the robot, but her face became fearful as she noticed the electrically charged cords coming out of Nana's wrists and starting to make contact with Ty's fur. One jolt from those wires could kill Ty, ending the life of the child she had spent the last six years fighting to protect. Qwark noticed the despaired look on Angela's face and decided that, for once, he would do something brave, not for personal gain but for a friend. A giant green gloved fist made contact with the robot's face, knocking the towering figure to the ground. Ty landed on the floor next to Angela and managed to crawl his way into her arms. Qwark faced the figure of the robot with his Blaster in hand and glared at the larger being.

"Bad Nana." He fired a round of purple blasts at the giant robot's head and dodged the slashing motions she made. He ran out of ammunition and decided to do something really brave. He dashed forward and delivered a massive uppercut to her robotic jaw, making the appendage fly off. Qwark reached his hand into the open space left by the missing part and pulled out her robotic brain. The glowing red eyes dimmed and eventually went out as the figure toppled over into a heap of scrap metal. Qwark looked thoughtfully at the strange piece of machinery and then noticed a purple-ish liquid coming out of it.

"Ew." He dropped the thing hurriedly and ran to wash off the glove. Angela held her head in one arm and Ty's small form in the other, the younger Lombax pressing his head against her chest. Qwark came out of the bathroom with his sterilized glove and sighed in relief as he found that he had gotten the liquid off his glove. Angela got up and rubbed her head painfully, still holding Ty by the hand. She grabbed her armor and wrenches then looked outside to see what kind of security they had established around the house. At least five Praetorian Guards were surrounding the small house and they were all heavily armed. She saw that there was a clear path to her ship and relayed this information to Qwark. The large green-suited man ran past the guards, making them chase him without even noticing Angela and Ty slip into the green starship. The engines started and they rose into the air, soon followed by Max Apogee's ship. They opened a transmission with Angela's ship and the three men laughed. Angela's face was seen on the screen and she was smiling at those three.

"Ms. Angela, have I ever said what a lovely smile you have?" the old Lombax chuckled.

"Thanks, and thanks for helping."

"Of course, it's all I can do to help get Ratchet out of there, he saved my Talwyn," Max insisted. Qwark let out a heroic (yeah right) laugh and spoke.

"Ha ha, now we're talking. Let us go forth and save our friend." Angela sighed and fixed the picture of Qwark with an exasperated glare.

"Qwark, can you act serious for _once in your life_!" Ty could be heard laughing beside her; it was so much funnier to hear his mother yell at someone other than him. However, Boris had something to add to dampen the mood.

"I understand how desperate you are to save Ratchet but, see; you're the only fighter among us that could possibly hold off a Praetorian Guard, we need someone with experience and skill." Max snorted.

"You kidding, the only person I know who could do that would be Alister Azimuth."

"Yeah and he's the one we're fighting…"

"_Alister_ Azimuth, the chief is Arthur Azimuth. Alister is his father."

"But he's dead."

"For all he knows," he said cryptically. "How did Ratchet say he died?"

"Err, I think it was in some sort of reaction with the Great Clock," she said uncertainly. Max and Boris looked at each other.

"Orvus is the one you go to when there's something involving that clock of his," Max offered.

"Right, Ms. Angela, follow us. We'll lead you to Tropianto," he said. Angela did not question his judgment, simply ordered her ship to follow Max's. They blasted into space, going towards planet Tropianto.


	12. Return of the General

**Chapter 12:**

**Return of the General**

They landed on a strange world of towering pillars of stone and deep canyons covered in a perpetual stormy overcast. A temple stood on the other side of a long bridge guarded by an old man with a long beard. Angela left Ty behind and walked forward with Qwark and Max Apogee to see the old man.

"Hello, sir?" Up close, the man looked quite a bit like one of the old mystics that inhabited Tabora and even her home planet of Greblin.

"Hello my child, I'm guessing that you want to cross this bridge?" he assumed.

"Yeah, so if you could move aside please?" she asked.

"If wanting to cross this bridge be thee, then answer you must these questions three."

"Or else?" The Mystic drew a finger across his throat and Angela quickly agreed to answer the questions.

"First, what is your name?"

"Angela Cross."

"What is your quest?"

"To find Alister Azimuth."

"What…is your favorite color?" Angela gave him a "seriously?" look.

"Blue."

"You may pass." He let Angela get by but stopped Qwark when he tried to pass.

"If wanting to cross this bridge be thee. Then answer you must these questions three."

"Uh," he mumbled, looking confused.

"What is your name?"

"Copernicus Leslie Qwark."

"What is your quest?"

"To find Alister Azimuth."

"What…is the air speed velocity of a Thyrranoid that has been dipped in mayonnaise?"

"Uhh?" he mumbled. Thankfully Max came to his rescue.

"Specialty or Store Brand?" he asked of the mystic.

"Actually I never thought of that," he admitted. The Mystic was launched into the endless abyss and Qwark and Max crossed the rickety bridge. The three of them entered the temple and saw several gears being laced with electricity from the storm outside. A small Zoni was operating the many gears and apparently didn't appreciate being interrupted by anyone.

"What?" he asked irritably.

"Are you Orvus?" she asked.

"Yes." Angela breathed in deeply then spoke.

"Please, an innocent Lombax has been imprisoned for crimes he did not commit by our corrupt leader and the only one who can help him is dead."

"I'm sorry, I cannot help." He was about to turn away but Angela desperately kept talking.

"Please, his name is Ratchet, he's a great hero, and he has prevented the destruction of universes. He travels around with a robot named Clank." As soon as the name "Clank" was mentioned, Orvus turned around with a look of wonder.

"Clank?" he asked.

"Yes," Angela said anxiously.

"Clank, he's my son."

"So robots _can_ have kids," Qwark muttered to himself.

"I donated parts to his creation," he told Qwark. He then returned his attention to Angela.

"The entire reason Ratchet came here was because of you, in a way. Clank promised he wouldn't look for you until Ratchet had a family and he came here looking for me." Orvus looked impressed.

"Interesting, if it's Clank I will help you. Now, Alister Azimuth was killed by a reaction in the Great Clock. This could possibly mean that he is trapped within the time-space continuum, which would also mean that with a few flicks and twists of levers," he replicated the motions he spoke of, "he should be…_released_!" A column of blue-white light appeared, sizzling in the air. Suddenly, it retracted into a circular portal in the ceiling, which a white furred Lombax in the armor of an officer of the Praetorian Guard fell out of onto the floor. His eyes opened, revealing dark amber irises and he groaned. The Lombax held his head in his right hand and looked up at Angela.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"My name is Angela Cross, I am a Lombax. Welcome, you are in the Lombax dimension, two months in the future," she said with a smile. Alister looked around.

"I'm here? How many Lombaxes are here?" he said, his voice full of excitement.

"Hundreds, but only about three are on your side." His face fell.

"Three?" he asked weakly.

"Me, my six year old son, and Ratchet's uncle Bolt." His eyes lit at the name 'Ratchet'.

"Ratchet? What about him?" he asked.

"We need you to help rescue him. He's been framed and arrested for the kidnapping of over a hundred Lombax children and conspiring against the Lombax race," she said with a weak smile.

"Ratchet needs our help? Hmm, and what kind of conspiracy anyways?" he asked.

"He wanted to bring us all back to the other dimension, to Fastoon or wherever. However our chief found that idea very disagreeable."

"Chief?" he asked, finding the word foreign in the Lombax dialect.

"He…he's…he's your son, Arthur," she said.

"Arthur, he's the leader of the lombaxes?" he asked, looking shocked.

"Yes, but he's crazy, he won't let us go back to the other dimension. He thinks the Cragmites will kill us all," she said. Alister shook his head in disbelief.

"I don't know it just doesn't sound like Arthur. But he may have changed, I don't know," he said the last part in a low sigh.

"So you can help us?" she asked hopefully.

"If the entire Lombax race can benefit from it. I see this as the moment of redemption. I will go with you," he replied with a bow and followed them to the ships.


	13. The Great Escape

**Chapter 13:**

**The Great Escape**

The prison was the largest building in its area in a remote part of Fastoon II surrounded by water. Only the occasional supply ship could land there but the ingenious general found a way to let them in. A large supply ship landed in the prison yard, piloted by a group of three lombaxes carrying two bundles. One had a little bundle that she had slung over her shoulder and the other two helped each other carry a gigantic bundle. The guard stopped them and demanded I.D. however the elderly white Lombax soon gave him a different idea. They walked through the entrance and went into the high security blocks. They dropped the bundles and out of the small one came Ty and the huge one was Qwark. The other three took off the phony delivery person clothes and one of the more perverted inmates made a little joke to Angela.

"Yeah, that's right keep going," he laughed. Angela flipped him off. The inmate continued laughing but they simply ignored him and walked over to the lower sections of the high security. The clinking of a cup against bars was heard from a high security cell and they walked over to see a little metal hand pushing a cup between the bars. Then came Ratchet's voice from the inside.

"Can you stop it Clank?" it groaned.

"Oops, sorry."

"Ratchet, Clank?" she asked, walking towards the cell. Ratchet walked over to the bars and looked through.

"Angela?" He saw everyone standing outside the door, truly an odd combination. However, his gaze was drawn to the familiar white Lombax.

"General? But you're dead."

"Not anymore," he smiled.

"Just hold on, we'll open the door, now where's a way to open the door…" She looked around for some kind of opening mechanism but the General decided to relieve her of the responsibility. He smacked the door with a wrench he had relieved one of the guards who had demanded I.D. of and it opened immediately.

"How?" she asked.

"It is simple; the door can only be opened by a Praetorian Guard so it is obvious that the locking mechanism must be opened by their signature weapon." Ratchet and Clank quickly exited their cell and ran to the armory to find their weapons. The General led the way to the armory and passed behind a Guard who was guarding the armory. He tapped the young soldier on the shoulder and he shot into action, making all kinds of phony moves to attack him. The General rolled his eyes and smacked the soldier on the side of the head with his wrench. He placed the two prongs of the wrench on either side of the soldier's neck and leaned down on his weapon.

"That is your first lesson in self defense. If there is a threat, don't give it a show of force, attack immediately. Now if you would be ever so kind as to let us into the armory, our friend here needs his armor and weapons." He nodded at Ratchet. The soldier agreed and was let up but paused to ask a question.

"Who are you?" the guard asked in wonder.

"General Alister Azimuth, Four Bolt Magistrate of the Praetorian Guard."

"Whoa that's quite a title old timer. So what moves do you use to get all those fancy titles?" He grew tired of the cocky young Lombax and knocked him to the floor again.

"Listen you! I've fought in two great wars, killed many men, and loved only one woman with a passion a flea bitten scoundrel like you could hardly imagine!" (review if you know what that's from).

"Alister, General Azimuth, calm down it's just some cocky kid." The General let him up, still glaring at him and the guard let them into the armory to grab Ratchet's armor and wrench. The guard seemed to want to make amends to the elderly Lombax so he asked what he could do to help. The General stared at him and only told him to make sure that no one followed them. The Guard nodded and allowed the strange group of people to pass by.


	14. Duel of the Fates

_Author's Note: No one reviewed? Okay, just so you know, last chapter was a parody of the famous bridge scene from _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_. And when I said "review if you know what that's from" I didn't mean you couldn't review unless you knew, I need to be more specific with these things. Anyway, if you're interested, you can check out my new story on Sly Cooper Fanfiction: _Sara Cooper Trilogy: Cooper Comeback_. Now please sit back and enjoy these last few chapters. Geek out._

**Chapter 14:**

**Duel of the Fates**

The two ships landed inside of the city where, as planned, almost the entire Home Guard surrounded the landing site. They were taken to the city hall where the Chief would see them and give judgment. The Chief looked over at the group of eight and laughed.

"Hahahaha, this is too pathetic. Ratchet, it seems that you always have such a poor choice of allies: three old men, a six year old child and its mother, a phony superhero and a two foot tall robot." He laughed as the elderly white Lombax came forward.

"You do not know who I am?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I doubt it."

"You don't know me, your own father?" The Chief's eyes widened and he looked from the old lombaxes white fur to his own.

"You have no right to call yourself my father; you led Tachyon to us and forced us to move away from everything we know. Because of you, I had to live without a father, because of you I never got what was rightfully mine," he snarled. "Now, begone!"

"You think you can send me away this way?" the general asked.

"I don't think, I know. Now, to deal with you all." He stood in front of the members of the party but looked specifically at Ratchet.

"You, you have already earned imprisonment but then escaping and coming straight back here to be captured, you have earned an execution for this insubordination." He looked over at Max, Boris, and Qwark. "You two, you…whatever you are and you Markazian, you are no longer welcome here. As for you old man, you're just about dead, making it happen a little early will not do you any wrong."

"If you wanna kill him you have to kill me too!" he growled, standing in front of the elderly Lombax. The Chief just chuckled.

"So be it." He charged a bolt of energy in his wrench and launched it at Max; the old Markazian's pupils widened and then shrank as the life left his form.

"Max!" she screamed, running to his body. Ratchet looked on helplessly as Angela lay beside the Markazian's body, the man that had raised her ever since Tachyon killed her parents. Max's eyes opened slightly and he used the last of his energy to make a final request.

"Ratchet, Angela, promise me you'll look after Talwyn…Cronk and Zephyr are more likely to increase the amount of trouble she'll be in," he said weakly.

"Max, we'll help her," he promised.

"That's good boy, Angela…the best of luck raising that boy of yours." He closed his eyes and never opened them again. Angela turned, shaking uncontrollably, to the Chief with tears in her large blue eyes.

"You…F***ing Bastard!" she screamed. She ran at him but one sweep of the wrench sent her to the ground, unconscious. He turned to Ratchet and glared at him.

"You turned her against me, Ratchet!" he growled. Ratchet looked at Angela's unconscious form then turned back to the chief.

"You did that yourself." The Chief growled and then ran at Ratchet with a battle cry, swinging the wrench at Ratchet who flew out of the way using the self flight he had developed on the Yoman homeworld. He hovered ten feet off the ground, looking down at the Chief on the ground.

"Very clever Ratchet, but you'll find I've given my own armor a few innovations as well." He flew up to where Ratchet was and hit him, making the golden furred Lombax fly into the center of town where a battle had erupted between the Chief's supporters and those who thought Ratchet was in the right. The white furred Lombax landed in front of Ratchet. "You'll see that you aren't the only one who has a little robot helping them." He turned around and they saw Klunk harnessed to the Chief's back. Clank gave a small bark of a laugh.

"First taking orders from an organic being, now you're riding on one's back like I do which you have openly scorned."

"I'm just getting really desperate to rid myself of you." The Chief turned around and swept his wrench at Ratchet only to have it connect to the other Lombax's.

"Finally going to face me Ratchet?" he sneered.

"That'll be nice won't it?" The two wrenches swung and connected to each other several times. Ratchet charged up Clank's thruster pack and blasted forward into the Chief's stomach. They fell down the side of the building their fight had taken them to and collided painfully with the ground. They had lost their robots and those two ended up several feet away. Ratchet tried to get up painfully; he had been on the bottom when they landed. The Chief stood over Ratchet and raised his wrench to strike Ratchet in the head, ending his life. Two wrenches collided with the Chief's diaphragm, sending him flying backwards into a wall. Ratchet looked up to see Angela offering him a hand; smiling and seemingly unaffected by the severe hit to the head the Chief had given her. Ratchet allowed himself to be pulled up by Angela and they both turned to see the chief getting up painfully. He glared at Angela and held his wrench stiffly.

"So you decide to value him above your people?" he snarled.

"You mean _you_?" she challenged. "You are about to get what you deserve."

"This type of insubordination will get you killed Angela, perhaps we can treat your boy to the same fate." Angela's face whitened under her fur and she let out a low growl.

"If you touch him, I swear it will be the last thing you do," she hissed threateningly. The Chief threw his wrench at them and heard the satisfying sound of it hitting her stomach. Angela got up and stared up at him, raising her wrenches but only to be punched in the face. Her nose bled and she stared up at him to find his face hovering above her own. He placed his wrench over her neck, making it so she couldn't move. His foot was placed on her stomach and he held her down as he reached for one of those strange crossbows.

"Don't worry, this one will only stun you, but the one destined for your son will have the power to kill."

"No…you won't…ever…touch him," she gasped, trying to pry the prongs of the wrench away from her neck. He stroked her cheek with his free hand and smiled.

"It's a real waste, but you made your judgments and now the punishment must be dealt." He charged the weapon and was about to fire when a wrench struck him in the side of the head. The wrench flew back to Ratchet and he ran forward to get the double ended wrench away from Angela's neck. The Chief grabbed Ratchet from behind with one arm and used the other to gain a handle on his wrench. Angela swung her wrench forward and it made contact with the Chief's rib cage, knocking him off of Ratchet. The Chief launched himself at Angela and swept his wrench across her face, knocking her to the ground again. Ratchet stopped to wait for Angela to get up but she remained on the ground, after feeling her for a pulse he was relieved to find that she was just knocked out again. The Chief attempted to knock him out with an overhand strike but Ratchet managed to sweep his wrench across the elongated handle of the Chief's double ended one. The weapon was destroyed, leaving the Chief defenseless. He smiled at Ratchet, both panting.

"Well done, Hero," he sneered. Ratchet now fully got to appreciate the scale of battle around them. Right now he could see Qwark punching aside Praetorian Guards that tried to attack him like the hero he had once been. Ratchet turned back to the Chief and spread his arms to indicate the battle.

"You see the battle that's erupted around you. People will die, this is exactly what you wanted to prevent." The Chief laughed again.

"You really believed that idiotic story?" he sneered. "This wasn't about returning to the other dimension this is about theft."

"Theft, what are you talking about?" Ratchet asked, confused.

"You _stole_ Angela from me Ratchet. She was rightfully mine but you came butting into the way."

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"There was an arrangement between my parents and her's, that our families would become one once both of us reached the age of adulthood. However, many things happened at that time. Tachyon attacked Fastoon, my father fell from grace, and we were separated by the barrier between dimensions because of that stupid Markazian, Max Apogee. Then, once I find that she has returned I learn that she is pregnant with the child of another; _your_ child, Ratchet. Now I have to live with the idea that some random person took away my right for their own personal gain. Now I get to destroy everyone who took away that right." Ratchet shook his head in disbelief.

"That's crazy talk. It was her parent's decision to leave her with Max. You're just some crazy, power-hungry maniac," he shouted.

"You call me power-hungry? I already have power; it is my rights I want. She was rightfully mine and you come and think you can just take her?" he snarled.

"I didn't take her, we fell in love." The Chief laughed derisively.

"Ha! You fool; when she came here you were the thing she hated most in any universe. I was so close to having her, but then the brat was born and all of her attention was put into raising him. Then, I gave her the Nana my mother had been given to help raise me but then, the Yomans started kidnapping children and she went off to try and stop that in order to protect him. So now I have a list of the ones who have ruined my life, and now I shall end theirs, starting with you." The Chief then paused, a gloating smirk on his face. "Well, not exactly starting with you, that stupid Markazian was the first to go." Ratchet yelled in fury and ran at the defenseless chief, well not really defenseless. The Chief pulled out the crossbow-like weapon and shot the wrench straight out of Ratchet's hand. It flew in the air and the Chief caught it, pointing it at the now defenseless Ratchet. He charged a plasma bolt in the wrench and readied to fire it at Ratchet.

"So long, Ratchet." Clank awoke and looked over at the lombaxes to see Ratchet about to be destroyed by the Chief with one of those lethal plasma bolts. Clank grabbed the awakening Klunk and ran towards the line of fire. Ratchet watched in slow motion as the bolt flew towards him just like the one that had killed him before Clank managed to save him, and then he saw Clank, dragging Klunk, and running towards him. He knew what Clank planned to do and yelled at him to stop but Clank ignored him and jumped in front of the bolt, using Klunk as a shield. The bolt destroyed Klunk but quite a bit of it still managed to fry Clank. The son of Orvus flew backwards and landed at Ratchet's feet with a large hole in his chest plate.

"Clank? Clank! Wake up buddy!" He held Clank in his arms, looking at the lifeless form of his best friend. No, not his friend, his brother. "Clank!" he shouted. His eyes filled with tears as he mourned for his friend. The Chief crowed and mocked him for being so attached to "that piece of junk". Ratchet's eyes flicked up to the Chief and his sobs became growls of fury and he ran at the Chief, yelling in fury and bloodlust. He grabbed one of the wrenches that Angela used and struck the Chief in his chest. The battle was pure fury between the two male lombaxes and they traveled through the midst of the town to the old Raritarium mine. They jumped from mine cart to mine cart, battling with pure fury and bloodlust. They jumped over cauldrons of molten Raritarium and continued battling. They ended up fighting on a catwalk that spanned above the largest pot of the molten metal. The Chief took a wild swing with the sharp edge of the wrench and cut the support for their part of the catwalk. Ratchet clicked his Hoverboots and landed on the far edge of the cauldron. The Chief clicked his own and attempted to land behind Ratchet and push him into the molten metal. He flew above Ratchet, victory in sight but the golden Lombax caught him with the edge of his wrench. The Chief landed in the pot of liquid and yelled in pain. He managed to leap out and face Ratchet, a slightly nightmarish sight as the most of the fur on his lower parts had been burned off. He charged Ratchet and rammed him onto the edge of the pot. He wasn't put in the pot but the parts of the Chief that had been burned still had some of the molten metal on it and burned Ratchet's legs. He was beating Ratchet over the head with his bare hands and trying to push his head into the molten metal. Ratchet managed to roll over and put the Chief into his own previous position. He got off and ran for his wrench but was pulled back by the ankle. He managed to grab hold of his own wrench's handle and brought it around to chop off the hand that held him. Ratchet got on his feet, despite the pain of his burnt legs, and glared at the Chief who was clutching the stump of his arm.

"So, you won and now you'll claim her for your own," he snarled. Ratchet walked forward and kneeled down to face the Chief with a look of pure disgust on his face.

"Angela_ isn't_ a piece of property. So stop treating her like she is one." He kicked the Chief into the molten liquid and simply walked off to see everyone else.

_Author's Note: Damn, Ratchet is __cold__. Please review my story._


	15. Returning Home

**Chapter 15:**

**Returning Home**

Ratchet walked over to the place where Clank had lost his life and saw Angela leaning by him. She looked over at Ratchet with tears in her eyes and hugged him tightly. Ratchet looked at his friend and couldn't help but let the tears he's been holding back come forth. They heard ship engines above them and looked up to see Ratchet's ship floating down and finally landing a few meters away. The cockpit opened and the small form of Ty leapt out and ran into Angela's arms. She held the boy tightly and barely paid attention to Bolt and Qwark getting out. Bolt walked up to Ratchet who was still holding the lifeless form of Clank in his arms.

"What 'sit boy?" he asked, panting.

"Clank tried to protect me from Azimuth's plasma bolt but he got himself killed in the process," Ratchet choked. Boris looked at the many parts left over from the battle.

"What are all these parts from?" he asked.

"Clank attempted to use his twin, Klunk, as a shield."

"Twin? That would mean they got the exact same parts right?" Boris asked, thinking.

"Yeah, but I don't want any piece of Klunk to taint Clank's body," he said.

"Don't worry boy, Clank will still be the exact same robot he ever was. And anyway, the pieces will be only temporary until you can get some pieces in Metropolis," he assured.

"Yeah, it might work," Ratchet said doubtfully. Bolt put his hand on Ratchet's shoulder.

"Have a little more faith in me, will ya boy?" He worked on Clank for a few minutes and then he pulled back and watched as Clank's eyes flickered slightly and eventually burned back to their full brightness. He looked over at Ratchet's tear-stained face and smiled.

"Aww, were you worried, Ratchet?" Clank chuckled warmly. Ratchet couldn't help but let a choked laugh escape his mouth as he embraced Clank like a brother. "How did you bring me back?" he asked.

"Hey, I know you might not like it but we used some of the parts Klunk left behind after you used him as an unsuccessful shield."

"Well I guess my 'brother' just became an organ donor." He chuckled again.

"Well boy, some of these parts are still good, whatta ya want to do with 'em?" Boris asked. Ratchet looked over at Clank to see his friend deep in thought.

"Well, I had a bit of an idea…"

They arrived back in the main part of town to see the entire population listening to the General give a speech.

"And it is now evident that your Chief, Arthur Azimuth, is the one who is actually responsible for the kidnappings." A number of voices were raised in anger.

"Where is he…He deserves to rot in prison…Let me at him, I'll rip his guts…" Alister raised a hand and the lombaxes quieted, he then turned to Ratchet expectantly.

"Azimuth is dead, I killed him. He was on a trip of vengeance against those that contributed to a certain irk of his; me being one of them." Alister nodded and continued talking to the citizens but Ratchet and the others didn't pay attention to him as they all walked back to the ship.

"Ratchet…" the general called unexpectedly.

"Yeah, General?" he asked.

"We were wondering how we were supposed to get back to the other dimension." Ratchet's mouth opened comically, then he seemingly recomposed himself.

"Actually I never did really think this far ahead," he admitted. Angela smacked herself in the head.

"I think I have the solution to your problems," a voice called out, one that was very familiar to Clank.

"Father?" he asked, his voice choked with emotion.

"Yes, it is me," said the Zoni leader as he approached. Ratchet chuckled as father and son embraced.

"Hey Clank, you broke your own promise," he teased.

"What?" he asked.

"You said you wouldn't look for your dad until I had my own family."

"Not really, I promised I wouldn't _look_ for him until you had a family of your own, you never said anything about him appearing out of nowhere," Clank chuckled.

"Yeah, well it's good to see you have your family back."

"Yes, well I have something to ask you about," he said, turning to Orvus once more. He showed the spare pieces that had been salvaged from the destroyed parts of him and Orvus smiled knowingly. They both drifted away, leaving Ratchet to watch in a half happy, half sad position.

"Hey, hero, you going to come over here or are we going to have to drag you?" Angela asked jokingly from behind him.

"What?" He turned to see Angela and Ty, just those two standing behind him. "Where is everyone?" They both pointed backwards where Ratchet could see Qwark standing among a crowd of lombaxes, telling the story of bravery that was shown by these heroes.

"Classic Qwark, huh?" he laughed, shaking his head.

"Nothing gets past you does it," she said sarcastically but her smile told Ratchet it was her joking as usual. They all joined in a bit of a collective laugh for a few minutes then it subsided into just smiles.

"Really, I just can't believe that you managed to beat him," she said proudly.

"Maybe you should really learn to trust me?" he offered.

"Trust you, why would I trust you?" Angela asked jokingly.

"I saved your sorry butt at least twice, not counting the Protopet fiasco; you owe me a dozen." She leaned forward and kissed him, leaving Ty to watch with his eyebrows clearing the bottoms of his ears.

"_Mom_!" They broke apart after a few minutes and Ratchet looked at her with a bewildered expression.

"We even now?" she asked smugly.

"Maybe." Angela laughed at Ratchet, still the hopeless romantic but she had to admit, it was one of the things she liked best about him. They were both brought back into awareness of the rest of the world when Qwark's booming voice yelled over at them.

"Hey, you two! Orvus found a way to let the entire population of the Lombaxes return to the other dimension!" he shouted excitedly.

"Hey, come on. Let's get going." She grabbed Ty's hand but the boy didn't seem to be too keen on going right now.

"I just want to ask you a question," he shot at Ratchet.

"What is it?"

"Well, everyone's been telling me you're my dad. Is it true?" Ratchet seemed to be very reluctant to answer Ty's question, and he glanced over at Angela to see her glaring at him.

"Well, it seems very likely but I can't promise anything." His smile didn't seem to impress the young boy and he turned away and walked over to where all the lombaxes were going. Angela glared at Ratchet in disgust and walked after her son. Ratchet stared after them for a few minutes and heard Ty complaining about being hungry. Ratchet grabbed a fruit he had learned was edible and called after them.

"Hey, kid!" Ty turned around and Ratchet threw the fruit at him, which Ty caught. He looked at Ratchet again to see the older Lombax smiling. "Call me Dad," he said. Angela looked at Ratchet in shock for a minute then her face broke into a wide smile.


	16. Epilogue

**Epilogue:**

**1 year later**

The Cross residence in Megapolis was abuzz with excitement as the young Ty ran around impatiently, waiting for his godmother to be able to take him to the hospital where he would meet his parents and Clank.

"Come _on_ Talwyn! I don't wanna wait any much longer," he complained to the young Markazian woman bustling about.

"Alright buddy, I just have to get this last thing." Ty grumbled, pacing next to the front door when Talwyn finally managed to get everything. She started up the ship and flew over to the hospital on the other edge of the city. Ty was anxiously shuffling his feet as the hovercraft moved along the congested airways, Cronk and Zephyr's endless bickering didn't help his anxiety at all.

They arrived at the hospital and Talwyn asked the desk clerk about the room that Angela Cross occupied. The Clerk directed them to the room and Ty and Talwyn entered the small hospital room. It was a small, white painted room without much on the walls but Ty's attention was brought to the bed where his mother lay with Ratchet right by the side of the bed. Ty walked forward and looked over the top of the bed to the bundle his mother held. She turned it over so that Ty could see the face of a small sleeping baby Lombax.

"Ty, this is your sister, Aphelion," she said softly.

"Wow, she looks a bit like you," he whispered, looking at his baby sister.

"Yeah and you're gonna get to help us raise her as you're her big brother."

"That's a lot of work isn't it?" he asked nervously.

"You get the easy part, you just have to make sure she's all right and set an example for her," she assured.

"You think you're up for it?" Ratchet asked.

"I'm ready."

"That's good buddy. Hey, Clank, how you doing?" he asked of the small robot who was anxiously waiting by a machine under the control of Al, the gerbil-like ex-member of the Q Force.

"I do believe this machine was programmed to take extra long." He glared at Al who was standing by the robot, making all the preparations it needed to process the parts that Clank had left over from his near-fatal accident.

"Don't blame me, I didn't make this machine. It's just taking a little longer than expected for the building process to begin." Al smacked the machine in frustration and it snapped into work, processing Clank's parts into a new robot. Suddenly, a small robot shot out of the end of the machine, it looked almost exactly like Clank except it had a little radio dish on the side of its head that looked like a flower. When the eyes were opened, they were shown to be a light purple instead of Clank's bright turquoise. The obviously female robot opened her eyes and looked at Clank, seeing the similarities between them, her voice shook.

"Father?" she asked.

"Hello, what is your serial number?" he asked fondly.

"XJ-189909." Clank tapped his daughter's arm and it made a light "clink" noise.

"How about we just call you Clink?" he offered.

"If you wish, father." Clank embraced his daughter in a hug.

"So, we're one big happy family?" Ratchet asked.

"I'd say so." She pressed Aphelion to her chest and smiled.

"I would agree with that."

"Alright, well, it seems that we just do this parenting thing."

"I hope you know more about it than you know about how to say it," Clank teased.

"He does, now let's just stop talking and enjoy seeing these new members of our family." And they did.

The End

_Author's Note: And here it is, the much awaited ending to Ratchet and Clank Future: The Final Frontier. Ratchet and Angela find their final happiness together, the Lombaxes are returned to the universe, Clank creates his own family, and Qwark stays Qwark. If you beg for it enough (or if I get/receive a brainwave on how to do it) I will write a sequel centering on Ty and Aphie (short for Aphelion). And if you're wondering, no, she is not named after the ship. In my stories, Aphelion is a popular Lombax name and the name of Angela's mother. So remember, if you beg enough I will write a sequel and post it, please review, Geek out. _


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